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HELPING BUSINESS GROW

EDev, a nonprofit microenterprise development program based in Eugene, serves new and expanding businesses

By Sherri Buri McDonald

The Register-Guard

Appeared in print: Sunday, April 19, 2009, page D1

Some of the smallest of the small businesses in Oregon are starting up and taking root with a little help from eDev, a nonprofit micro­enterprise development program based in Eugene.

Rob Singer, who founded Acupuncture for the People in south Eugene three years ago, said he went from a struggling solo acupuncture practice to a thriving business that serves more than 2,000 people a year.

Instead of charging the typical $60 to $80 an hour, Singer charges on a sliding scale as little as $15 a session. He typically works on four clients an hour in a group setting. Clients take a seat in a comfortable chair, and Singer inserts sterilized disposable needles to treat such ailments as headaches, PMS or insomnia. Clients then are free to relax for as long as they like, Singer said.

He credits adopting a “community acupuncture model,” which emphasizes low cost and high volume, for transforming his practice. Singer also credits eDev for providing the business counseling, accounting training and legal consultation that helped him make that transition.

“At some point, (as a business owner) you’re going to enter into a place where you don’t have the knowledge or expertise on the particular issues that come up,” Singer said. “There are a lot of business aspects that are a mystery and eDev helped shed light on that.”

“Having access to information and expertise is really helpful in making decisions and in putting those resources in the right place and in the right time,” he said.

Short for Entrepreneurial Development Services, eDev started in 1998 as a collaboration between Lane Community College, Saturday Market and O.U.R. Federal Credit Union.

The group, formerly known as Lane Microbusiness, initially served clients in the Eugene-Springfield area. In recent years, it has branched out, providing business training and counseling and loan assistance to local clients, and to clients as far away as Burns and LaGrande.

Now, with the recession and tight credit markets, “the economy has collapsed to the point where we’re seeing different needs,” executive director Shawn Winkler-Rios said.

Starting in January, more unemployed clients interested in starting their own businesses began calling or stopping by eDev’s offices next to the Lane Community College Small Business Development Center on Willamette Street, he said. EDev also is fielding more requests for microloans, which averageabout $10,000,, Winkler-Rios said.

“We’re seeing more instances of partial lending from another institution,” he said. “I’m getting the sense that (banks are) getting more conservative with their lending, and they’re looking at us to mitigate their risk.” Last year, eDev packaged about 10 loans, Winkler-Rios said.

“I think we’re at seven or eight in the first three months (of the year), and they’re still coming,” he said.

That presents challenges for the agency, whose small staff of 4½ full-time workers serves 300 to 500 clients a year.

EDev receives funding from a variety of state and federal government sources. In the fiscal year ended June 30, 2008, eDev reported $375,097 in revenues from numerous grants.

This fiscal year, much of the agency’s funding has been exhausted months earlier than expected.

“We’re starting to get creative,” Winkler-Rios said, adding that one possibility the group is considering is charging for some of the classes it previously had offered for free.

EDev is known as an innovator among the 70 or so micro­enterprise programs around the state.

The program is tailored to the needs of small businesses with five or fewer employees, said Mike McKenzie-Bahr, Lane County community and economic development coordinator.

“We definitely encourage small businesses to meet with them,” he said. “Even if you’re a small business and you think you know what you’re doing, there are just so many resources that they provide.”

With classes and document assistance available in Spanish, eDev also is a great tool for entrepreneurs who speak English as a second language, Mc­Kenzie-Bahr said.

“EDev has always been a real leader,” said Valerie Plummer, executive director of The Oregon Microenterprise Network, a statewide network of microenterprise development organizations.

“What’s unique is eDev’s ability to meet clients where they’re at,” in terms of their skills, experience and even their geographic location, she said.

“Typically, these are one-person shows, so they don’t have a lot of time and money to go to classes,” Winkler-Rios said. “So we take the services to them.”

Several business owners, including acupuncturist Singer, said that eDev helped them turn an interest or pastime into a business with profit potential.

“Before it was sort of like my hobby that I wanted to be my business, and now it’s becoming a viable profitable business,” said Nome McBride, co-owner of American Herbal Dispensary in Eugene, which grows and processes medicinal herbs and packages herbal formulas.

McBride and his wife, Carissa, had been running the business for a couple of years before linking up with eDev.

“We were really good at the farming part, but the business side was pretty foreign to us,” McBride said.

He said he initially was drawn to eDev’s “individual development account” savings plan, which matches $3 for every $1 the business owner saves. To qualify for the plan, McBride had to complete several classes, including “How to Write a Business Plan,” and an introduction to QuickBooks accounting software.

McBride ended up saving $1,300, and eDev matched it with $3,900, which he used to buy a label printer.

“By the time I finished the program I realized that all the things that I learned were more valuable than the $3,000 that I got,” he said.

Katharine Emlen, owner of Creative Mind Publications in Eugene, said she saved $5,000 through eDev’s individual development account program. She said she used the money to help self-publish her hardbound 48-page gift book, “Believe!” and to pay for marketing materials. She also designed and sells “I am” chant magnets, which include an “I am” magnet and 56 adjectives.

“EDev was tremendously helpful to me because I’m full of creativity ... but when it comes to business aspects and common sense about keeping business accounts and budgets and conducting yourself as a business person, I was at square one,” Emlen said.